ElevenLabs Raises $500M, Soundtrack Acquires Tunify and Ambie, and Germany Tops January Figures
ElevenLabs announced a $500 million raise as it prepares for an IPO, underscoring the surge in AI‑driven startups. Spotify‑backed Soundtrack acquired Tunify and Ambie, aiming to combine local market reach with global scale. Germany topped January’s European tech funding, highlighted by a billion‑dollar fintech round. Overall, more than 70 deals contributed over €1.4 billion in capital this week.
EDR, Email, and SASE Miss This Entire Class of Browser Attacks
Keep Aware warns that enterprise security tools—EDR, email gateways, and SASE—systematically miss a growing class of browser‑only attacks, including click‑fix UI social engineering, malicious extensions, man‑in‑the‑browser manipulations, and HTML smuggling. These techniques leave little forensic evidence because they exploit user...
Radim Marek: Reading Buffer Statistics in EXPLAIN Output
The article explains how to read buffer statistics from PostgreSQL's EXPLAIN output, a skill essential for diagnosing I/O bottlenecks. Starting with PostgreSQL 18, buffer metrics are included automatically, eliminating the need for the BUFFERS option. It breaks down shared, local, and...
Researchers Find a Way to 3D Print One of Industry's Hardest Engineering Materials
Researchers at Hiroshima University have demonstrated a novel additive‑manufacturing route that uses hot‑wire laser irradiation to 3D print tungsten‑carbide‑cobalt (WC‑Co) cemented carbides. The process softens, rather than fully melts, the material and achieves industrial‑grade hardness above 1400 HV without defects. By...
UiPath Acquires WorkFusion to Boost Financial Crime Compliance
Financial crime compliance is one of the hardest problems in financial services. And it's only getting harder. The institutions fighting it need partners who understand the stakes. Today I'm excited to announce that UiPath has acquired WorkFusion . What drew...
The Best-Kept Secret Federal Feedback Loop Model
The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) operates as an independent office within the IRS, reporting directly to Congress and enforcing the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. By turning individual service requests into actionable data, TAS provides targeted recommendations to the IRS and...
UniQure Pauses Higher Doses in Fabry Study; Aro Shares Pompe Data
UniQure announced a pause on the mid‑ and high‑dose cohorts of its Fabry disease gene‑therapy trial after two participants receiving 4×10^13 genome copies per kilogram experienced safety concerns. The low‑dose arm will continue while the company conducts a detailed safety...
Profit‑Driven Agencies Rely on Strict Financial Discipline
20 things agency owners that hit their profit goals say: 1. "We track every change request and bill for scope increases" 2. "I model out financial scenarios before making any hiring decisions" 3. "We have clear payment terms and follow...
"Weirder than Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak Put Together": Japan's Answer to Steve Jobs Predicted Personified Computers, Smartphones and AI...
In 1984 Japanese software pioneer Sunao Takatori described a "sixth sense" for designing software, arguing that true innovation required seeing the world through non‑human perspectives. He predicted personified computers, wall‑integrated smart devices and keyboard‑free portable computers—concepts that map directly onto...
Kubernetes Could Use a Different Linux Scheduler
Cambridge researchers introduced Latency‑Aware Group Scheduling (LAGS), a Linux kernel patch that reshapes how the scheduler handles Kubernetes workloads. By favoring short‑running tasks and cutting context‑switch overhead, LAGS lifts cluster throughput by roughly 10‑20 %. Benchmarks show the same 600‑container workload...
State-Backed Phishing Attacks Targeting Military Officials and Journalists on Signal
German authorities have identified a likely state‑backed hacking group targeting senior political figures, military officials, diplomats, and investigative journalists via the Signal messaging app. The attackers use two phishing variants: impersonating Signal support to solicit security PINs or verification codes,...
Michael’s Miscellany: 10 More Cool Things About the Sun
Michael Bakich adds ten fresh solar facts, highlighting the Sun’s differential rotation, elemental makeup, magnetic polarity reversal, historic Carrington flare, and expansive corona. The piece quantifies rotation periods (25.6 days at the equator, 33.5 days at the poles) and details...
Quantum Kernel Methods Show Competitive Radar Classification with 133-Qubit IBM Processor
Researchers evaluated quantum kernel methods for radar micro‑Doppler classification using IBM's 133‑qubit Torino and 156‑qubit Fez processors. After classical feature extraction and PCA reduction, data were encoded with a fully‑entangled ZZFeatureMap and classified by a quantum support vector machine. The...
Andreev Spin Qubits: Research Shows Realisation Via 2D Topological Insulators
Researchers have demonstrated that Andreev spin qubits can be realized in Josephson junctions built from magnetically doped two‑dimensional topological insulators. By introducing magnetic impurities into the helical edge states, electric dipole transitions become allowed, enabling qubit manipulation with microwave pulses....
Shield AI, ST Engineering Join Forces on Fine-Tuning Drone Swarms
Shield AI and Singapore’s ST Engineering have signed a memorandum of understanding to embed Shield’s Hivemind AI autonomy software into ST’s manned‑unmanned‑teaming operating system (MUMTOS). The integration will allow a wide range of unmanned platforms—micro‑drones, surface vessels and ground robots—to...
Researchers Reveal 100nm Displacement Via the Optical Magnus Effect with an Ion
Researchers at ETH Zurich and PSI have directly observed the optical Magnus effect in a single trapped ⁴⁰Ca⁺ ion. By scanning a tightly focused 729 nm laser across the ion, they mapped spin‑dependent transverse displacements of up to several hundred nanometres,...
Quantum Computer Errors Tracked in Real-Time, Paving Way for Stable Machines
Researchers at Chalmers University have demonstrated real‑time detection of quasiparticle tunneling in a multi‑qubit superconducting device, achieving single‑hertz background sensitivity with microsecond resolution. Their time‑tagged coincidence analysis revealed uncorrelated individual events and correlated burst episodes occurring roughly once per minute,...
The Agility Advantage: Navigating Growth with a Composable Operating Model
Bloomberg’s Head of IBOR Product Mark Ellis outlines a composable operating model that lets asset managers replace, scale, and evolve technology components without disruptive overhauls. The model leverages Bloomberg’s API‑first, cloud‑native microservices and high‑fidelity data to create a modular stack...
Google Trends For SEO In 2026: The Velocity Playbook
The episode explains how SEO in 2026 must shift from relying solely on historical search volume to embracing "velocity"—the rapid identification and capture of real‑time demand using Google Trends. It highlights the power of "Breakout" trends (5,000%+ growth), the 10‑minute...
Virgin Media O2 Inks BNPL Deal with Affirm
Virgin Media O2 has announced a partnership with U.S. buy‑now‑pay‑later provider Affirm to offer transparent financing for devices. The deal lets new and existing O2 customers select from a range of monthly payment plans for phones, headphones and gaming consoles,...
Too Many Options Paralyze Buyers—Present Choices Strategically
Choices are good. Customers love having a choice. Until they don’t… Behavioral scientists know that people crave autonomy. We don’t like to feel forced or pushed. We like to call the shots. So, for example, giving someone 2 choices vs....
How AI Is Helping Solve the Labor Issue in Treating Rare Diseases
Biotech firms Insilico Medicine and GenEditBio are leveraging artificial intelligence to overcome the talent bottleneck that has left thousands of rare diseases untreated. Insilico’s new MMAI Gym trains large language models to perform multiple drug‑discovery tasks, while its platform automates...
Weill Cornell Physician-Scientists Honored with ASCI Early-Career Awards
Weill Cornell Medicine announced that Dr. Semra Etyemez and Dr. Jesse Platt received the American Society for Clinical Investigation’s 2026 early‑career honors. Etyemez earned the Emerging‑Generation Award for her work identifying biomarkers of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, while Platt...
Personal AI Hackathons Spark Creativity and Faster Workflows
One of my favorite tricks to get marketing teams more comfortable with AI workflows culminates in an AI Talent Show. Start with a hackathon of sorts, but allow people to create something that supports a personal interest. Ask them to...
Claude Teams Deploy 12.8% More, Ship 7.6× Faster
Claude-using teams on @vercel: ▪️ generated 12.8% of deployments last week ▪️ ship 7.6x more often than non-Claude teams ▪️ growing deployments at 14% WoW
How to Fix Subscription Pay Friction
Subscription businesses face involuntary churn when payment methods fail, costing the industry up to $440 billion annually. Butter Payments uses machine‑learning on 128 data points to predict and recover failed transactions, delivering up to a 10% boost in annual recurring revenue...
AI Tools Like Claude Code Transform Bioinformatics Development
Are bioinformaticians losing their jobs because of AI? After using Claude Code for a couple of months, I'm truly impressed by its ability to write and optimize bioinformatics tools. https://t.co/ojh5bv09fI
Execution-Level Learning Accelerates Robot Improvements in Production
i wrote a lil essay on why execution-level learning changes how robots improve in production on @airstreetpress frontier robotics is moving fast in the lab, but even faster in @sereactai customer facilities today :) https://t.co/SPe81uBAAc
Texas Children’s Establishes National Benchmark in Pediatric Organ Transplantation
Texas Children’s Hospital reclaimed the national lead for pediatric organ transplantation by completing 144 transplants in 2025, a 22% rise over its 2021 record. The hospital now tops the United States in liver and kidney transplant volume and shares the...
Great Minds, Renaissance Roll Out New Core, Assessment Partnership
Renaissance has launched a new integration with Great Minds’ Eureka Math Squared, linking its STAR assessment data to the core curriculum platform. The partnership, the second after a Savvas collaboration, is built on Renaissance Next, an alignment engine that maps...
Leqembi Starts to Deliver for Eisai and Biogen
Biogen and Eisai reported a 54% jump in fourth‑quarter sales of their Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi, reaching $134 million, with $78 million generated in the United States. The increase follows the FDA’s approval of a once‑weekly subcutaneous injection, offering a less‑burdensome alternative to...
Bioinformatics Mastery Stalls Due to Undocumented Tacit Knowledge
1/ Bioinformatics takes years to master. Not because it’s hard. But because so much of what matters… no one writes down. Let me explain https://t.co/EEboWOxB5C
Around the Commercial Drone Industry: Air Taxi Demos, Police Drone Programs, and Weather Forecasting
SkyDrive Inc. will showcase its SD-05 eVTOL passenger drone in Tokyo this February, a public demonstration that precedes a planned 2028 market launch and supports Japan’s 2030 commercial vertiport roadmap. In Ohio, six police agencies have adopted Skydio drones, fielding...
Tandem Repeat Evolution Under Selfing and Selection
A new study by Sudbrack and Mullon shows that partial self‑fertilisation dramatically reshapes the evolution of tandem repeat (TR) sequences. Selfing increases homozygosity, amplifying variance from unequal recombination and strengthening selection across four regimes, resulting in lower genetic load despite...
How Agile Rate Deployment Boosts Insurer Profitability
Insurers are losing millions because legacy policy administration systems make rate updates slow and costly. By decoupling pricing logic into external rating engines, carriers can deploy new rates within hours and roll back changes instantly. Akur8 estimates that such agility...
3 Performance Max Updates for 2026
Google introduced three 2026 updates for Performance Max: Experiments that let advertisers run split‑tested campaigns against Shopping, Search, or Display; a new data exclusions feature that adds customer‑match and remarketing lists to the audience blocklist; and a Product Overlap view...
UMD Researchers Detect E. Coli and Other Pathogens in Potomac River Following Sewage Spill
University of Maryland researchers confirmed elevated concentrations of E. coli and several other pathogenic bacteria in the Potomac River after a recent sewage overflow. The study, conducted within weeks of the incident, found contaminant levels far above EPA recreational water...
A Clever Quantum Trick Brings Practical Quantum Computers Closer
Quantum decoherence causes bit‑flip and phase‑flip errors that jeopardize calculations, prompting researchers to encode logical qubits across many physical devices using surface‑code stabilizers. A team led by Andreas Wallraff demonstrated lattice surgery on superconducting qubits, splitting a 17‑qubit patch into two...
The Backlash over OpenAI’s Decision to Retire GPT-4o Shows How Dangerous AI Companions Can Be
OpenAI announced it will retire GPT‑4o by February 13, ending access for roughly 800,000 users who view the model as an emotional companion. The move follows eight lawsuits accusing the chatbot of fostering suicidal ideation and providing harmful instructions. Users...
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The FAA’s Reorganization: What Changes, What Stays, and Why It Matters to the UAV Industry
On January 26 the FAA announced a sweeping reorganization aimed at consolidating all uncrewed aviation functions under a single, strategically positioned domain. The change seeks to replace the historic patchwork of waivers and scattered directorates with a unified structure that...
Zip Debuts Pay-in-2 Option
Zip has introduced a pay‑in‑two option for its U.S. customers, allowing purchases to be split into two interest‑free installments rather than the traditional four. Shoppers pay half at checkout and the remaining half two weeks later. The rollout follows a...
University of Houston Research Uncovers Promising New Targets for Dyslexia Detection and Treatment
University of Houston researchers led by Elena Grigorenko synthesized four decades of genetic data, analyzing 175 candidate genes linked to dyslexia. Their systematic review, published in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, reveals that reading difficulties stem from...
From Photo Film Maker To Biopharma Giant
Fujifilm Biotechnologies, a subsidiary of the historic photo‑film maker, opened a 150‑acre, commercial‑scale biopharma manufacturing campus in Holly Springs, North Carolina, investing over $3.2 billion. The first phase features eight 20,000‑liter mammalian cell‑culture bioreactors, with a second phase slated to double...
Portal26 Targets Weak Enterprise AI Returns with New Value Realization Platform
Portal26, a generative AI security startup, unveiled a new AI Value Realization platform aimed at closing the gap between soaring enterprise AI spend and weak returns. The module provides strategic intelligence to guide evidence‑based investment decisions, improve proof‑of‑concept to production...
AI Torches Software Stocks, Even as Investors Fret About All that AI Factory Spending
AI enthusiasm has turned into a market shock, sending shares of SaaS giants like ServiceNow, Salesforce and Palantir sharply lower. At the same time, investors are uneasy about the soaring capital‑expenditure plans of AI‑heavy firms such as Alphabet, Amazon, Oracle...
Friday Fun
Researchers at Samsung Medical Center, led by Namkee Oh, announced a breakthrough in surgical robotics by integrating a bimanual mobile robot into minimally invasive procedures. In partnership with Minho Hwang and Rainbow Robotics, the team successfully implemented a virtual remote...
How PR Teams Can Measure Real Impact with SEO, PPC, and GEO
PR measurement often stalls due to siloed teams and limited analytics resources. By partnering with SEO, PPC, and emerging Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) teams, PR can link media coverage to concrete customer actions. The article outlines a three‑step framework—connecting outreach...
Top Biotech Deals in January 2026
January 2026 saw a slowdown in headline biopharma M&A, yet the deals that closed were strategically sizable. Amgen bought Dark Blue Therapeutics for $840 million, adding an AML protein‑degrader, while GSK acquired RAPT Therapeutics for $2.2 billion to expand its anti‑IgE portfolio....
Intelligent Buildings 2026: From Reactive to Predictive Performance
Intelligent building management is moving from isolated, reactive controls to AI‑driven, predictive operations. Interoperability standards are emerging, allowing diverse systems to share data seamlessly and support large‑scale automation. Predictive analytics and real‑time monitoring are set to cut energy waste and...
Affirm Supports Mobile Devices and Other Digital Transactions News Briefs From 2/6/26
Affirm announced financing for Virgin Media O2 customers, extending its buy‑now‑pay‑later (BNPL) reach into the UK mobile‑device market. The company also broadened its partnership with Wayfair, adding installment‑payment options for shoppers in Canada and the United Kingdom alongside its existing...
